- Photos by Bill Stephens
Owens, team ready to fight NU for title
Heading into the final lap with the Big Eight basketball finish line in sight, it's time for the Kansas Jayhawks to kick up their heels . . . and kick they must.
Since that night last January when the Jayhawks fell a stride behind the Nebraska Cornhuskers, losing to them at Lincoln 83-75, the Hawks have doggedly hugged the Huskers' heels.
PACING THEIR way through six straight conference victories, the Jayhawks, matching Nebraska game for game, have kept in the race. But now the finish line is in view and so is the path by which to get there first.
The Jayhawks must make their bid to catch the Huskers this Saturday night when they meet Nebraska at Allen Field House.
AS COACH TED OWENS was quick to point out after the Oklahoma game Monday night, "We've got the chance to play for the championship, and now it's up to us. If we lose it, then we don't deserve the title. It's on our shoulders. But that's what we wanted."
Coach Owens is leery of the view that the Jayhawks will have an advantage over Nebraska because they will be playing on their home ground. He compared the situation with the final game of last year's season in which Kansas met Oklahoma State in Lawrence, and lost.
IN FACT," he said, "the outlook was even better for us at that time because we had no more games to play and our previous loss to Oklahoma State had come in a game with four overtimes.
"Just because we play at home is no advantage to us against a team like Nebraska. Instead, we're the ones at a disadvantage."
OWENS pointed out that after the Nebraska game the Jayhawks must still face third ranking Kansas State at Manhattan and Colorado at Lawrence. Nebraska must also play Kansas State and Colorado in addition to Oklahoma State, but they will be playing the Wildcats and the Cowboys in their home territory, having defeated both in previous road trips.
Said Owens, "All we've done this season is fight to stay close to the leader which is Nebraska. Saturday night we'll still be fighting to catch up, not go ahead."
KANSAS plans nothing new or different for Nebraska nor does Owens expect Nebraska to change its game. He said it is only logical for both teams to stay with what has brought them this far and now is not the time for either to try for a change.
Nebraska's biggest threat is their speed, and from the experience of their first meeting Kansas knows Nebraska likes to run.
According to Owens, KU's job will be to get back on defense as quickly as possible.
"This will be our greatest problem and we can and must adjust to it," he said.
"This game is going to take a 100 per cent effort from each and every player is we are going to win."
OWENs was not sure, as of yesterday, of his first five, having yet to decide if Ron Franz or Riney Lochmann will be starting at forward. The rest of the team
will be the same as it has been in the past, with Del Lewis and Jo Jo White at the guard positions, Walt Wesley at center, and Al Lopes at the other forward spot.
OWENS said the Jayhawks have played well offensively in the last few games, but have not been particularly sharp on defense. He plans to work hard on this in the time remaining before the game, especially on the team's man-to-man press.
Play-maker Del Lewis said that although they try to play each game one-by-one, he and his teammates have been looking forward to Saturday night's game since they lost at Lincoln.
Lewis believes the Jayhawks are a much better team than they were when they played Nebraska the first time.
SINCE THAT TIME sophomore guard, Jo Jo White, has joined the KU line-up and Lewis feels his addition has given the team more depth, speed, all-around strength and, most important, confidence.
OWENS mentioned he has noticed more interest by KU students in this game than he has in any game in the six years he has been at KU.
Interested the students are, for they have not had the chance to see such round-ball action by the Jayhawks since the days of Wilt Chamberlain and company.
Not since the 1956-57 season when Chamberlain led the Hawks to their last Big Eight Conference crown and NCAA tournament, has a Kansas team compiled a record equal to the 19-3 win-loss mark Owens has led his team to so far this season.